Black and White
by Totally Alone
Summary: AU. She had struggled with it, to no avail. But finally there came a time when she played it beautifully...when she lost the one who had unintentionally captured her heart. ONESHOT


My first Naruto fan-fiction! I'm so nervous! –bites fingernails- I hope you'll like it….

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. All the characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This one-shot is all I have.

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**. . Black** and White

Hyuuga Hinata winced when her piano went off-key – again. The shrill scream made her eardrums vibrate and pierced her heart, travelling around the music room. It was gradually absorbed by the thick blue-greem carpet, but the note continued wailing in her mind.

Her small hand shook, poised above the keyboard. She had failed again. Her playing had gone awry, not unlike her many attempts prior to this.

Dejectedly, she averted her gaze to the pages of music before her. The black notes stood out boldly against the pale white paper, imprinting themselves deep within Hinata's mind.

Why, oh why, couldn't she play it? It was a beautiful piece, too. True, the tone of the song was melancholic and sorrowful, but it spoke volumes to the shy Hyuuga. To her, it spoke of a love lost. Tragedic though it may be, but she found solace in the haunting notes that hung in the air even after the song ended, from the blossoming of the powerful emotion to the climax, where the music took on an anxious note, keeping her on her toes. And the ending; oh, she couldn't describe it.

It was just…beautiful.

She had caught snatches of it when her sister, Hyuuga Hanabi, was practicing. Often she had stared at the tough oak door, mesmerized by the notes that seemed to roll so smoothly off her sister's fingers, but not off hers. And when the song ended, she would slink away quietly to nurse her dejection.

Caught in her own thoughts, Hinata bowed her head so that her eyes were hidden from view. It would not do to show her despair. That would be tainting her family's pride, at least in her father's eyes.

Her fingers fell slowly on the keys, sounding each one. They were laced with doubt and uncertainty, lingering for a moment in the room before going out of existence.

Gathering what was left of her resolution, the girl rearranged her music and sat up straighter in her piano seat. The pages of black notes seemed to taunt her lack of talent.

To her embarrassment, Hinata was almost intimidated. The girl bit her lip, chastising herself inwardly for an overly active imagination. Fancy being scared of a bunch of notes!

For a split second, she wanted to close the hood of the piano and call it a day, give up on the piece that she loved so. Luckily, her desire to finally be able to play it perfectly was the stronger of the two, and the former caved in after a moment's hesitation.

The trembling of her hands had calmed slightly by then. Hinata took a deep breath, placed her fingers on a few keys, and began.

The song did not disappoint. Her fingers ran across the keyboard smoothly enough, sounding the note clearly, flawlessly. It started slow with a hint of romance and progressed rapidly, the pace of the music quickening, squeezing the heart of the young pianist.

For once, everything went well.

It was all Hinata asked for. Her heart was caught up in ecstasy despite the urgency that rung in every note, the quickening of the beat that signified the upcoming arrival of an eventful and promising climax.

The beauty of the piece was ruined with a single note than ran astray. Poor Hinata's joy was shattered in the blink of an eye.

Her hand fell, lifeless, onto the keyboard. At least six keys emitted vociferous wails of different pitches, protesting against the undeserved abuse.

Hinata simply sat there, unmoving. Nothing stirred in the eerily silent room until a playful puff of wind sent her music flying all over the place. Still the young Hyuuga sat, rigid, in her seat.

Slowly but surely, a tear started to roll down her cheek. Hinata did nothing to stop it, being lost amid the shattered pieces of her heart.

She failed. Again.

She should've predicted this. She had, after all, been deemed a failure by no other than her father, Hyuuga Hiashi.

"_You are a failure…"_

"_You disgrace the Hyuuga name!"_

"_A failure…"_

"_Disgrace…"_

_Failure…disgrace…._

"Nooo_ooooooooooo_!" She screamed, clapping her hands over her ears and shaking her head wildly so that her hair whipped her cheeks. Tears came fast and steadily now.

A tentative knock coming from the door caught her in mid-sniffle, nearly choking her.

"Hinata-sama? May I come in?" A voice said, muffled by the wood that was the barrier between them. It was enough for the heiress to recognise the voice as that of Uzumaki Naruto's, an orphan she had stumbled upon when she chanced to lose her way in the never-ending maze that encircled the city.

Of course, her parents (her father in particular) were strongly against allowing a 'stray' to live with them, but had relented after days of Hinata's insistent pleadings. Naruto had been her friend ever since. Despite that, her stuttering and blushing whenever he was around never failed to draw a scowl from both adults.

Naruto knocked again, this time with more force.

"Hinata-sama, are you all right?"

Hinata had to suppress a small smile that was tugging at her lips. Trust Naruto to barge in whenever she was nearly drowned in remorse. He seemed to possess an acute sense her emotions, appearing at the slightest change in her feelings.

_It's almost as if we were linked,_ she remarked dryly in her mind. _Or of the same mind…._

She dispelled those thoughts immediately at another knock. Hinata chuckled.

_You'll never change, will you?_ She chided fondly as a blush crept up to her cheeks. Truth be told, Naruto was not famous for his patience and subtlety. In fact, he was the exact _opposite_.

That didn't deter her from looking up to him as her idol, soon-to-be-crush.

Hinata stamped that thought down at once. No! She did _not_ like the loud-mouthed idiot, merely respected him!

Reluctantly, she admitted that her respect for Naruto had been developing into something more. Something more…intense. Something that was deeper than mere respect.

Not that she would be admitting that anytime soon….

"Hinata-sama!" Naruto yelled, banging the door loudly. The girl yelped and bumped her knee against the underside of the piano, drawing a soft hiss.

Suddenly the door sprang open to reveal a boy with a shock of blonde hair clad in a hideous bright orange jacket. Apparently, he had kicked the door open.

Father won't be happy, Hinata observed. Naruto, however, was ignorant of the consequences of his actions, which was best left alone for now.

He made a beeline for the Hyuuga, hunched over as she inspected her knee. Or so he thought.

"Hey, Hinata-sama, why didn't you open the door when I knocked?" he said testily. His peeved look melted away milliseconds later to be replaced with one of concern upon receiving no reply.

"Hinata-sama…?"

Hesitantly, he crouched down so that he could look into her eyes. She refused to let him do so, bowing her head lower so that her rich blue-black hair covered her face.

Naruto frowned. It wasn't like her to react this way. Usually she would blush and start apologising non-stop for something trivial that could be easily overlooked. Not that he liked it, but it was definitely better than this new Hinata who kept to herself so much.

So it came as a huge shock to both teenagers when Naruto placed a hand under her chin and gently forced her to meet his gaze. Anxious blue eyes searched those of the heiress with such concern that it touched her heart.

Whenever he looks at her like that, it felt as though all the sadness that had welled up within her heart simply melted away to be replaced by some weird tingling feeling that she could not put her finger on.

It was a complex mystery, but she wanted it to be that way forever. It was a nice change from the pressure caused by being the failure of the prominent Hyuuga clan.

"Hinata-sama," Naruto intoned quietly, surprising the latter. "Were you crying?"

Hinata looked away, the memory of her recent failures weighing on her heavily. She felt like crying again.

"Hinata-sama," he repeated, with a bit more force. "Look at me."

When she did not comply, he reached out for her and cupped her cheek, slowly turning her face until she was looking at him once more.

Sighing, he brushed off a bead of tear that had been on the tip of her eyelashes. Silence reigned for a while.

"Is there anything you wish to tell me, Hinata-sama? You look troubled…" he murmured. Hinata shook her head stubbornly.

"Oh come on, you know you can tell me anything!" he said with a grin, startling her. She stared at him in disbelief. How could he become so cheerful all of a sudden?

"…you know that your secrets will be safe with me!" He boasted and strutted around the room, sticking his chest out comically.

Hinata couldn't help it. She erupted into giggles, then into laughter. Naruto laughed along with her.

"Feeling better now, aren't we?" he said, grinning all the while. Hinata, her cheeks still rosy from the recent outburst of laughter, nodded.

"Now, tell me your problem."

And tell him, she did. The joy at being given the chance to play the song, the despair and anguish she felt every time it went wrong – she poured her soul out to him as he gave her his warmth to provide some comfort. By the time she was done, Hinata felt much better.

Naruto had never been the ideal listener, but she told him everything, regardless. That boy could never sit still for long. As it was, he had explored the room twice throughout her speech.

"Wow, Hinata-sama! Your piano is beautiful!" he cried, in awe of the grand piano that stood in the middle of the room. Hinata spared him a small smile.

"Y-Yes, it i-is, isn't it?" she sighed. "I j-just wish t-that m-m-my playing was b-befitting of its gr-grandeur…"

Naruto was upon her in an instant to clap a hand on her shoulder. The girl jumped, startled.

"You shouldn't be talking about yourself that way, Hinata-sama! You're a great pianist, believe me! I trust you!"

He said it so confidently that Hinata was compelled to agree, though not without reluctance on her side.

"I-I guess s-so," she whispered, so softly that Naruto had to strain his ears to hear her words.

His grin was infectious. Naruto had her smiling in a matter of minutes. When he was satisfied that she was no longer unhappy, he allowed his eyes to stray around the room.

There was no doubt that this room belonged to the rich. It _reeked_ of it. Even the carpet beneath his feet must've cost a fortune. It made him hesitant to dirty any part of the room.

Soon his inquisitive eyes found the pieces of paper strewn messily over the floor. Curiously, he picked it up and looked at them from various angles, but he could not make heads or tails of the seemingly countless amounts of the letter 'd' scrawled there.

"What this? So many D's…" he asked at last, too confused to think further. Hinata chuckled at his innocent expression and righted the sheaf of papers, which had been upside down. No wonder he had seen D's…inverted notes do look like the letter 'd', after all.

"T-This is t-t-the song I-I've been t-trying to p-play," she replied. Upon receiving her answer, Naruto scowled at the papers.

"You got upset over a bunch of D's?"

"I-I –"

"Hinata!" Her father's voice boomed from the door. He looked angry. "I need to talk to you. Naruto, please leave us now."

Hinata paled significantly when she saw her father. The look on his face was anything but comforting. In fact, it brought a feeling of foreboding to the young Hyuuga.

Silently, she waved goodbye to Naruto, who had run out after bowing respectfully to Hiashi, although not without a cheeky grin aimed at her behind Hiashi's back. It eased her apprehension somewhat.

The door clicked shut behind the boy, leaving the father and daughter alone in the room. No one spoke for a few minutes.

"That boy." Hiashi inclined his head in the direction of the door where they last saw Naruto. "He has to go."

Hinata's fragile heart, only repaired recently, shattered again, this time into shards even harder to salvage.

_He has to go._

No more noisy blonde to wreak havoc in her mansion anymore.

_He has to go._

Naruto would no longer be there by her side, ready to lend her a listening ear when the need arises.

_He has to go._

Naruto…Naruto would be gone. The memories of him would be erased easily without much effort. He would be out of their lives…out of _her_ life. And she did not want that.

"B-But why?" she asked, trying her best to control the scream that was fighting for a way out of her shaking body.

Hiashi chose not to answer. "Tomorrow, one of our servants will take him far away from here to work in a construction site. They were experiencing a shortage of manual labour, and I signed Naruto up for it immediately. You will not be seeing him again."

A choked sob escaped her, triggering a series of hiccups and sniffs. But Hiashi was gone, disappearing behind the door without a second glance at his pitiful daughter whom he regarded a failure.

"N-Naruto," she whimpered, clawing painfully at her chest. The thought of losing him was intolerable. _Impossible_.

For the second time that day, tears sprang from her eyes; a subtle indication of Hinata's broken heart.

Her eyes fell on the sheaf of papers that was the music she had been struggling with. Naruto had left them on the hood of the piano, carefully arranged according to the page.

Another choked sob hung in the still air as she recalled the incident.

"_You shouldn't be talking about yourself that way, Hinata-sama! You're a great pianist, believe me! I trust you!"_

"Naruto…"

"_What this? So many D's…"_

Hinata chuckled amid her tears, reminiscing the sweet times they shared together. Those would be cherished forever in her heart – a heart already torn and broken beyond repair.

"You never (hic) got to hear (hic) me play," she hiccupped. "I-I'll play i-it for y-you, o-okay?"

A tearful smile found its way to her face as she imagined him grinning and nodded enthusiastically, his wayward blonde hair going all over the place.

"I-I'll play for y-you then. L-Listen well, N-Naruto-kun."

Hinata wiped her tears away and laid her fingers on the keys. Her vision blurred as more tears squeezed out of her tear ducts, but she blinked them back furiously and started to play.

That was the only time Hyuuga Hinata was able to play it so beautifully. The note hung in the air long after her fingers graced the keyboard, haunting those present with bittersweet memories.

As for the pianist herself, she slowly lowered the hood of the piano to close it, hiding the white and black keys from sight. After that, she simply lay her head down on the hood and cried.

The door creaked open slightly to reveal Hanabi, who had been eavesdropping all the while. Her eyes went wide at the sight of her sister, sobbing fit to break her heart.

"Sister…" she whispered.

Hinata sobbed harder, hiding her face in her sleeve.

_Goodbye, Naruto…._

**THE END **

Ow. I nearly cried when I proof-read it. (sniff)

I hope you enjoyed it! If not, then I'm sorry.

A review would be nice… (grins) Reviews of any kind are welcome while pointless flames are not. Constructive criticism is more than welcome.


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